{"id":45750,"date":"2020-01-14T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T15:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=45750"},"modified":"2020-01-14T10:00:25","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T15:00:25","slug":"exclusive-state-rep-spencer-roach-blocks-activist-randy-scott-on-social-media-lawsuit-filed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2020\/01\/exclusive-state-rep-spencer-roach-blocks-activist-randy-scott-on-social-media-lawsuit-filed\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: State Rep Spencer Roach Blocks Activist Randy Scott on Social Media \u2013 Lawsuit Filed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"810\" height=\"455\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Lawsuit-MoneyandGavel.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-45751\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Lawsuit-MoneyandGavel.jpg 810w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Lawsuit-MoneyandGavel-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Lawsuit-MoneyandGavel-768x431.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Roach has blocked activist Randy Scott from posting on Roach\u2019s\ncampaign Facebook page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/736.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-45703\" width=\"232\" height=\"309\"\/><figcaption>State Rep Spencer Roach (R) Dist 79<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lehigh Acres Gazette has tried to reach Roach multiple ways\nand times with no response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scott has filed a Federal lawsuit against Roach Case # 2:20 \u2013 CV-25- FTM-38MRM<a> <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/filed_roach.pdf\">Click here<\/a> to read it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This lawsuit raises the questions of whether government or a\npolitical candidate such as the Spencer Roach is obligated to respect the\nrights of speech on social media when the speech is critical of the government\nor employee of the people or if it can simply delete comments that could paint,\nhe in a bad light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In July of 2019, a New York Federal appeals court upheld a\nlower court decision from 2018, which disallowed President Trump to block his\ncritics and naysayers from his personal Twitter account. This decision set a\nfirst-time precedent stipulating that \u201cthe First Amendment does not permit a\npublic official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official\npurposes to exclude persons from an otherwise\u2010open online dialogue because they\nexpressed views with which the official disagrees,\u201d wrote Judge Parker, who was\nnominated to the appeals court by President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many government critics have experienced similar censorship\nwhen they post comments on tax-payer funded social media. If Rep Roach has\nnothing to hide, he could use social media effectively to serve the\npublic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But one thing is obvious: If you are inviting feedback, only\nto delete comments or ban citizens that are critical, that can probably be\ndefined as censorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CENSORED-FACE.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-45752\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CENSORED-FACE.jpg 720w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CENSORED-FACE-300x142.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roach has blocked activist Randy Scott from posting on Roach\u2019s campaign Facebook page. The Lehigh Acres Gazette has tried to reach Roach multiple ways and times with no response. Scott&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}